babbling blue

Recently I had been having reasonable luck with the CTA. I say “reasonable” not “good”, but you take what you can get.

Today my luck ran out. My commute to work, which should take 25-30 minutes, took 45 today. And 1/3 of that time was spent waiting for a bus, outside with temperatures in the teens. This is how it went down:

I left my apartment a few minutes late (later than usual that is. . . I always leave later than I should) and show up at the bus stop. There is a bus approaching in the distance. I think to myself “Oh good, I got lucky. It’s damn cold out here and I’d hate to have to wait.” Oops. That bus was jam-packed. The driver didn’t even open the door for us. Shit. So I start to wait. I continue to wait. After 13-14 minutes another bus went by. I say it went by because it didn’t stop, just zoomed past as it too was full. A couple minutes later another full bus arrived and one person managed to squeeze on. And then. . . it’s like a bus convoy. At least 3-4 more buses came right after that one. Finally, I was able to board a bus. . . which then crawled along the street in its little convoy until I finally got to my stop. At which point my journey was half over.

I then descended into the dank and dark depths of the subway and waited for my train. To my relief, it arrived within a couple minutes. And then moved slowly, oh so slowly. It stopped several times between stations and sat at 2 of the 3 stations I went through for a time. Finally, I got to my destination. Oy vey!